FBI agents have found evidence that Chattanooga shooter Mohammod Abdulazeez was following a radical American member of al Qaeda online in 2013, as well as pages of writing that showed the young man was suicidal and looking for a way to absolve what he considered were his sins, according to a representative of Abdulazeez's family. Video tapes of Anwar al-Awlaki, the high-profile American al Qaeda cleric and recruiter, have circulated on the internet and have been popular in jihadist circles long after al-Awlaki's death by American drone strike in September 2011. ....there is no evidence so far that Mohammod Abdulazeez,...

Global Warming? The Pope is Wrong April 27, 2015 Alan Caruba My thoughts regarding the Pope are rooted in my knowledge of the long record of lies, false predictions, and claims by various environmentalists over the years. When the Vatican announced it would hold a conference on April 28 called “Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity: The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development”, I wondered why the Vatican is not holding a conference to organize the protection of Christians—particularly in the Middle East—against the wholesale genocide that is occurring. The Pope is not alone in this. There appears to...

Iraq uncovers al-Qaeda 'chemical weapons plot' The authorities in Iraq say they have uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to use chemical weapons, as well as to smuggle them to Europe and North America. Defence ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said five men had been arrested after military intelligence monitored their activities for three months. Three workshops for manufacturing the chemical agents, including sarin and mustard gas, were uncovered, he added. Remote-controlled toy planes were also seized at the workshops. Mr Askari said they were to have been used to release the chemical agents over the target from a "safe" distance of 1.5km...

Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the...

Former CIA Director David Petraeus said in a new interview that the rise of the Islamic State was “well known” among people monitoring the situation within the U.S. government, and that it was able to flourish amid the chaos of the civil war in Syria. “ISIS in a sense is the evolution of an organization that we did defeat, Al Qaeda in Iraq,” Petraeus told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in an interview published Monday. “Some of the very hard work we did to help re-establish the fabric of Iraqi society — to bring the Sunni Arabs back into Iraqi society and...

This just came in via Wall Street Journal: BAGHDADÂ—The Sunni Islamist militant group whose three-week blitz through northern Iraq has nearly upended the countryÂ’s fragile unity announced itself as a new Islamist Â“caliphateÂ” on Sunday, unilaterally declaring statehood and demanding allegiance from other Islamist groups.The announcement, recited in Arabic on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by spokesman Abu Mohammed Al Adnani into an audio file, effectively renames the group the Islamic State, canceling its previous title of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS.Â“We have had all the requirements of the Islamic state...

In 2006, I invited the late General Bill Odom to address my Thursday Congressional luncheon group. Gen. Odom, a former NSA director, called the Iraq war "the greatest strategic disaster in American history," and told the surprised audience that he could not understand why Congress had not impeached the president for pushing this disaster on the United States. History continues to prove the General's assessment absolutely correct. In September, 2002, arguing against a U.S. attack on Iraq, I said the following on the House Floor: "No credible evidence has been produced that Iraq has or is close to having nuclear...

The Pentagon Thursday said Islamic militants in Iraq might have captured U.S. equipment and vehicles as an al-Qaeda linked group advanced toward Baghdad. Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has seized control of two major cities, have been posting pictures on Twitter, claiming to have taken equipment given or sold by the U.S. to the Iraqi army. ADVERTISEMENT A defense official said claims the group had captured a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter were wrong, but that Humvees and armored vehicles might have fallen into the militants' hands. "I don't have any indication that the reports...

The full horror of the jihadists’ savage victories in Iraq emerged yesterday as witnesses told of streets lined with decapitated soldiers and policemen. Blood-soaked bodies and blazing vehicles were left in the wake of the Al Qaeda-inspired ISIS fanatics as they pushed the frontline towards Baghdad. They boasted about their triumphs in a propaganda video depicting appalling scenes including a businessman being dragged from his car and executed at the roadside with a pistol to the back of his head. In the swathe of captured territory across northern Iraq, ISIS declared hardline Sharia law, publishing rules ordering women not to...

Full Title: Al Qaeda-inspired militant group vows to march on Baghdad; President calls escalating violence an ‘emergency situation’//// The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has taken Iraq's second-largest city Mosul and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in recent days and vowed Thursday to take over the capital. -SNIP- President Obama says additional American assistance is necessary to help the current Iraqi government fight off the threat posed by rampaging Islamic insurgents. The President, speaking at the White House, offered no specifics as hostilities once again heat up in the nation formerly run by dictator Sadaam Hussein. But Obama...

Al Qaeda-inspired militants in Iraq vowed Thursday to march against Baghdad after seizing two key cities in the north of the country this week. A spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) said in audio posted on militant websites commonly used by the group that the fighters have old scores to settle with Iraq's Shiite-led government. The spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, also threatened that Sunni ISIL fighters would capture the southern Iraqi Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf, which hold two of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims

Sunni Islamist militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have rapidly expanded their control of Iraq as a whole. The group is now said to be within range of overtaking Iraq’s biggest oil refinery in the city of Baiji. ... ISIS is an Al Qaeda-offshoot that seeks to create a Sharia law compliant Sunni Islamic caliphate that runs through both Iraq and Syria.

Two and a half years after the last U.S. soldier departed, an al Qaeda offshoot is in control of Mosul and headed for Baghdad—and Iraq’s prime minister is requesting U.S. air strikes. It seems like only yesterday that Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was celebrating as the last American soldiers left Iraq. Now, with an al Qaeda offshoot threatening to take Baghdad, Maliki’s government is quietly asking at least some troops—specifically airmen and drone pilots—to return. While Iraq’s government is not requesting a surge in U.S. ground forces like the one President Bush ordered in 2007, Maliki’s government has been...

A National Guard reservist has been arrested at the Canadian border in Washington for allegedly trying to aid al-Qaida in a plot to attack a Southland subway. Nicholas Teausant, 20, of Acampo, Calif., was charged Monday with attempting to provide material to support a foregoing terrorist organization, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office said. He made his first appearance in a federal courtroom in Seattle Monday afternoon.

BAGHDAD: A senior Iraqi official claims Al-Qaeda fighters hunkered down in a city they seized late last month west of Baghdad have enough heavy weapons to allegedly take the country's capital. Senior deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Asadi said Monday that Iraqi forces are fighting "fierce battles" against heavily armed militants to recapture parts of Ramadi, the capital of the western Anbar province, and also the nearby city of Fallujah. He says the weapons in Fallujah that are in the hands of Iraq's Al-Qaeda branch and other Sunni militant groups battling the Shiite-led government are "advanced and huge and enough to...

The US fought for years to free Anbar province from the grip of al-Qaeda during the Iraq War. Fallujah and Ramadi turned into pitched battlefronts, and later â€śthe surgeâ€ť convinced local Sunni tribes to join the US effort to dispel AQ from the region. More than two years after the US pulled all of its forces out of Iraq, AQ is back â€” and Ramadi and Fallujah appear to have fallen once again: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The city center of Iraqâ€™s Fallujah has fallen completely into the hands of fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State in Iraq...

Al-Qaeda-Linked Force Captures Fallujah Amid Rise In Violence In Iraq By Liz Sly, January 3 BEIRUT — A rejuvenated al-Qaeda-affiliated force asserted control over the western Iraqi city of Fallujah on Friday, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state in one of the most crucial areas that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago. The capture of Fallujah came amid an explosion of violence across the western desert province of Anbar in which local tribes, Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda-affiliated militants have been fighting one another for days in a confusingly...

Just over two years since American troops entirely withdrew from Iraq, the black flag of Al Qaeda flies over the city of Fallujah’s government buildings in Iraq’s western Anbar Province. It was there that several American contractors were killed and strung up over a bridge in 2004 and American Marines fought the biggest battle of the Iraq War. “The capture of Fallujah came amid an explosion of violence across the western desert province of Anbar in which local tribes, the Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda militants have been fighting one another for days in a confusingly chaotic three-way war,” reads...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - How Obama Abandoned IraqPosted By Arnold Ahlert On November 4, 2013 @ 12:43 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 4 Comments President Obamaâ€™s facility for lying has taken center stage once again, as Americans grapple with the reality that they in factÂ canâ€™tÂ keep their health insurance if they like it. Yet while they remain focused on that debacle, anotherÂ seriesÂ of declarations made by the president, namely that al Qaeda was â€śon the runâ€ť and near â€śdefeat,â€ť is looking equally deceitful. Last Friday,Â Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met in an effort to deal with what is...

A Long Island man was arrested Friday after investigators say he attempted to travel to Yemen to join al Qaeda and conspired with the terror group from the United States, according to an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice. Marcos Alonso Zea, 25, also known as “Ali Zea,” was arrested at his home in Brentwood, New York, on charges of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, attempting to provide material support to terrorists and obstruction and attempted obstruction of justice, the indictment says. …

(CNSNews.com) - While President Barack Obama is now asking Congress to authorize him to use military force against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad because that regime used chemical weapons on its own people, the State Department is maintaining a travel warning advising Americans not to travel to Syria because the al-Nusrah Front, the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria--which is particiapting in the rebellion seeking to overthrow Assad--has carried out about 600 attacks in the country since November 2011. These al Qaeda terrorist attacks, according to the State Department, have killed many Syrian civilians. "There is also a threat from...

<p>This year's Ramadan was the most violence since 2007, with 671 people killed. Police said the deadliest of today's attacks took place when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a residential area in the town of Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad, killing eight people and wounding dozens. "My shop's windows were smashed and smoke filled the whole area," says a shoe shop owner, who survived an attack near his store in New Baghdad. "I went outside of the shop and I could hardly see because of the smoke. ... At the end, we had a terrible day that was supposed to be nice because of Eid."</p>

The Obama administration believes the bloody suicide attacks and car bombings in Baghdad that have killed dozens of Iraqis in recent days were likely carried out by al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). On Saturday evening, the State Department announced that the attacks bear the hallmarks of AQI - led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is now based in Syria.

SNIPPET: "Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed, 30, and Mohamed Hussein Said, 25, face an indictment charging them with conspiring to provide and attempting to provide material support to three U.S.-designated terrorist organizations that have operated in Iraq, Syria and Somalia, according to authorities." SNIPPET: "The defendants, while based overseas in 2011-13, allegedly sent thousands of dollars via Western Union to an al-Qaida terrorist affiliate, al-Nusrah Front, which is fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. They also allegedly sent funds to al-Shabaab, another terrorist group seeking to overthrow the U.S.-backed transitional government in Somalia."

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s al-Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility Tuesday for a jailbreak from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison that unleashed hundreds of militants into an already unstable region and boosted the group’s resurgent fortunes in Iraq and Syria. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said in a statement that hundreds of prisoners were freed late Sunday in two coordinated assaults in which fighters used suicide bombs and mortars to storm the two top security prisons on Baghdad’s outskirts at Abu Ghraib and Taji. Both were once run by the U.S. military and housed the country’s most senior al-Qaeda detainees....

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/tunisian-man-charged-with-visa-fraud-related-to-terrorism-intended-to-remain-in-u.s.-to-facilitate-an-act-of-international-terrorism Tunisian Man Charged with Visa Fraud Related to Terrorism, Intended to Remain in U.S. to Facilitate an Act of International Terrorism U.S. Attorney’s Office May 09, 2013 Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; George Venizelos, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Raymond W. Kelly, the Police Commissioner of the city of New York (NYPD), today announced the unsealing of charges against Ahmed Abassi, a Tunisian citizen, for...

An 18-year-old Aurora man was arrested Friday night before he tried making his way to Syria to join a ‘jihadist militant’ group, federal authorities said. Abdella Ahmad Tounisi was taken into custody without incident late Friday at O’Hare Airport by members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force as he attempted to board a flight destined for Istanbul, Turkey, according to the FBI’s Chicago office. Tounisi, a U.S. citizen, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel G. Martin Saturday for allegedly attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He appeared on Saturday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tounisi,...

Image that accompanied Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's audiotape announcing the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The flag was originally al Qaeda in Iraq's banner, but has been adopted by other al Qaeda affiliated and associated groups. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. The emir of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (also known as Abu Dua), has announced a new brand for his organization's efforts: the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant." The new name replaces all previous brands used by al Qaeda's affiliates in Iraq and Syria, including the...

Well, well, well, so Obama has embarked on his third war in little more than two years. You've got to admit that "flexibility" is his middle name. Or at least one of his middle names: Barack Barry Hussein "Flexibility" Soetoro Obama, Jr. Those are the names we know so far, but The Donald thinks there might be more. Whodda thunk? Here we are barely into the first week of what started out as a "No-Fly Zone" and it is now turning out to be Air Al Qaida. Ten years ago, AQ had a mere four civilian airplanes to crash into...

"IRAN SPY NETWORK 30,000 STRONG Pentagon report: Iranian intelligence linked to spying, terror attacks" SNIPPET: "Iran’s intelligence service includes 30,000 people who are engaged in covert and clandestine activities that range from spying to stealing technology to terrorist bombings and assassination, according to a Pentagon report." SNIPPET: "“MOIS provides financial, material, technological, or other support services to Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), all designated terrorist organizations under U.S. Executive Order 13224,” the report said. The spy service operates in all areas where Iran has interests, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Central Asia, Africa, Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, France,...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify on Dec. 20 before the House of Representatives and Senate foreign affairs committees on a report on the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, the committees said on Wednesday. The attack on Sept. 11 killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, and raised questions about the adequacy of security in far-flung posts. Republicans have criticized Democratic President Barack Obama's administration for its flawed early public explanations of the attack. They have also criticized shifting explanations of why talking points given to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations...

f Iraqis were hoping that the withdrawal of U.S. forces last year would finally mean the end of war, al Qaeda and its Sunni militant allies are determined to prove otherwise. Daily bombings and shootings remain an endemic feature of life. In the past three months, al Qaeda-linked fighters have been blamed for attacks that have killed at least 250 people. In a particularly poignant reminder of militants' potency this week, gunmen in unauthorized uniforms of special commandos drove from checkpoint to checkpoint in the western town of Haditha before dawn, gunning down police. They killed 27 including two officers...

Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Osama bin Laden-inspired terrorist group that sank the country into sectarian violence five years ago, is trying to make a comeback in post-U.S.-occupied Iraq, analysts and intelligence officials say. Washington is closely watching whether AQI, as it is called, in the next year can reassemble networks smashed by the U.S. counterterrorism campaign. American commandos and intelligence officers killed AQI leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in 2006 and then scores of other chieftains until, by 2011, the group was decimated. But right after the last U.S. troops left Iraq in mid-December, the Sunni Muslim AQI claimed responsibility...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/louisville/press-releases/2011/iraqi-national-pleads-guilty-to-23-count-terrorism-indictment-in-kentucky Iraqi National Pleads Guilty to 23-Count Terrorism Indictment in Kentucky Defendant Participated in Numerous Efforts to Kill U.S. Troops in Iraq with IEDs U.S. Department of Justice December 16, 2011 Office of Public Affairs BOWLING GREEN, KY—Iraqi citizen Waad Ramadan Alwan pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges today in U.S. District Court before Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell, announced Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; David J. Hale, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky; and Elizabeth A. Fries, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Louisville Division. Alwan,...

Note: Photo incuded. PHOTO CAPTION: "Police say these jeans were blown off Joseph Brice of Clarkston when a homemade explosive device he made went off Sunday." SNIPPET: "CLARKSTON - A Clarkston man was in critical condition Monday at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane after an explosion Sunday afternoon. Police said 20-year-old Joseph Brice was experimenting with explosives about a mile west of Red Wolf Bridge when his homemade bomb exploded prematurely."

Iraq's defense ministry says security forces have arrested 93 suspects in an al-Qaida crackdown in the western Anbar province. A defense ministry spokesman, Major General Mohammed al-Askari, said Thursday the arrests included 60 wanted men. He said the detentions resulted from a series of raids launched late Tuesday that included help from police, the army, pro-government tribal forces and members of an anti-al-Qaida militia. Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki named security as one of his top priorities after parliament approved cabinet ministers for his new government. Meanwhile, Iraqi officials say gunmen using silencers have killed a brigadier...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Catholic Online) - Catholics, other Christians, other people of faith and people of good throughout the world continue to mourn and reflect upon the brutal killing of Catholics at Holy Mass in Baghdad last Sunday. However, those associated with the Muslim extremists who perpetrated the evil act continue to spew their hateful and violent rhetoric. We are committed to updating our global readers on the unfolding danger that these threats portend against Catholics and other Christians. Serious times demand a serious response. Asia News has provided excellent coverage of the massacre and its aftermath. On November 3, they...

e-mail this to a friend printable version » 11/03/2010 09:20IRAQAl Qaeda threat: Christians are legitimate targetsThe authors of the terrorist massacre in the Baghdad church publish a message on the internet that is a threat to all Christians, and make explicit reference to the Vatican. Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) – “The ultimatum made two days ago to the church of Egypt for the release of two Muslim women held prisoner, has expired. We have had no response and now you are all involved in the war on Islam , so be careful of the souls of your followers. "...

SNIPPET: "Four of them - German citizens identified only as Tarek Alexander H., Daniel P., Renee Marc S. and Jonas T. - face charges of supporting al-Qaida, al-Qaida in Iraq and Ansar al-Islam, and membership in a criminal organization. Another four face those charges and additionally are accused of trying to recruit members or supporters for al-Qaida or al-Qaida in Iraq. In keeping with German privacy rules, they were identified only as Harun Can A., Salim Mohammed A. and Vivian S., all German citizens; and Emin T., a Turkish national. The key figure in the founding and organization of the...

SNIPPET: "The federal prosecutor's office said in a statement that the accused, identified only as Hussam S., had been detained Sunday in the western German town of Montabaur."The accused is strongly suspected of working to recruit members or supporters for Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb and the Islamic Jihad Union," the statement said." SNIPPET: "Hussam M. is believed to have used Internet forums and blogs belonging to the German section of the "Global Islamic Media Front" and the "Al-Ansar Media Battalion" since 2007 to attract militants to the various Al-Qaeda groups. And since February 2009, he allegedly...

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2010 – Iraqi forces working with U.S. advisors killed one senior al-Qaida in Iraq leader and captured two others in recent operations in Mosul, military officials reported. In eastern Mosul yesterday, Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors cornered Ahmad Ali Abbas Dahir al-Ubayd, also known as Abu Suhaib, the suspected military leader for the terror organization in northern Iraq. He allegedly is responsible for oversight of both bombing attacks against the Iraqi government and the people of Mosul. Ubayd refused to leave the building where he was hiding. Instead, he fired at Iraqi forces, who returned fire and...

THE UK BOMBING WERE EXPECTED. (sources quoted below) What is good in blogging is that you keep the infos alive. The MSM was able to say one day that IRAQ was behind 9/11 and suddenly put the story down without real reasons. There is many facts which shows UK is acting the same way with the present attacks and their obvious ties with IRAN. Al-Qaeda is not a self-sponsored organization. Nor has it the money, the intelligence and the personal. It is a window to fool the western intelligence and protect the sates. Al-Qaeda is state-sponsored terrorism. Like Hezbullah and...

...possible successors to the [Zarqawi]. One of them, Iraq-based Egyptian terrorist Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was also named by Major-General William Caldwell... The other two are an Iraqi named Abu Aseel and a Syrian named Abu al-Ghadia. Masri (reportedly... born in 1966) is believed to have entered Iraq to join Zarqawi in 2002 and founded a cell for al-Qaeda in Baghdad. ...Masri received his training at military camps in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule and met bin Laden at the Farouk Camp, where Masri was working as an instructor... is also reportedly close to Egyptian Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri... Abu Aseel and...

On August 19, coordinated explosions rocked downtown Baghdad, resulting in over 120 deaths. Similarly, in the midst of heightened security measures, twin bombings on October 25 killed over 155 people in Baghdad, marking the deadliest attack since August 2007. Involving the participation of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the operations suggest militants’ effectiveness in carrying out coordinated and high-profile attacks on supposedly secured targets. With the gradual disengagement of the U.S. military and all combat forces by August 2010, AQI and like-minded insurgents appear to have a growing level of confidence in their operations.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2009 – Iraqi security forces arrested 11 terrorism suspects in operations over the last two days, military officials reported. Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors searched several buildings throughout Baghdad today during a series of operations to search for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leader believed responsible for multiple vehicle-borne bomb attacks in the region. Credible intelligence led the security team to several locations across Baghdad in pursuit of the suspected cell leader. When a vehicle traveling at an excessive speed approached a restricted area established by the security team in the city’s Mansour district, the team attempted...

The bombs that ripped through Baghdad on Sunday immediately brought more bloodshed -- and bode only of the promise of more to come. The attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq -- a group affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq -- and there's nothing to suggest the attacks will come to an end. It's part of a long-running campaign to destabilize the U.S. mission, the Iraqi government and to reignite sectarian civil war. The slaughter is not new but the extent of the killings in these bombings -- 160 dead and more than 500 injured -- do...

President Barack Obama condemned Sunday two deadly car bombs set off in Baghdad near high-profile government offices that killed over 130 people. The Iraqi government initially said that the bombings bore the signature of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The blasts went off near the federal Ministry of Justice and the Baghdad provincial offices. "I strongly condemn these outrageous attacks on the Iraqi people, and send my deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones," Obama said in a statement. "These bombings serve no purpose other than the murder of innocent men, women and children, and they only reveal the hateful...